This morning when I set out into the field, I decided to deploy my two decoys and hopefully draw in the buck I call skyscraper (super tall tine'd 8 Pointer) that i had an encounter with on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday I didn't bring out the decoys for reasons unknown. Either way, this morning I set out to rectify the past decision and was hopeful to get a better shot at my main target buck of the year. Alas, when I arrived on location, it started to lightly snow and continued for several hours putting a light glaze of snow on each of the decoys backs. At 8:20 or so, I see what looks like a decent buck running through an adjacent field about 150-200 yards away. I grunt at him to get his attention and it works. I see him look in my direction, but he dipped into the trees and disappears. About 40 minutes later he finally appears on the field edge I'm sitting on. At this point he makes his way down the opposite side of the tree line and would not have given me a shot opportunity. I grunt at him again and transition to a couple soft doe bleets. This definitely gets his attention and he starts moving through the tree line towards me. At this point I'm thinking game over for this 8 pointer, but he takes another look at my snow covered decoys, puts up his white flag and trots away. Here's the question: Did the snow spook him? He couldn't have winded me and I wasn't making much noise or movement. Should I have gotten out of my stand and cleared off the decoys after the snow dissipated? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
My guess is that it wasn't the snow on the decoys - it was the decoys themselves. Deer aren't smart enough to reason that snow on their back means they're fake, and it's not uncommon to see deer with snow on their backs. However, decoys are always hit or miss. 50% of the time the deer bristle up and want to attack, the other half they run the other way. That's the risk you take with hunting deer over a decoy.
Sound logic. I guess I should have tried to switch sides of the tree line and ground pound with the ghille suit instead. The good news is that in the same spot I had encounters with shooter bucks on two straight sits. Hopefully next week their pattern is still roughly the same and I'll be sitting in the right spot. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
I've seen lots pics of deer with snow on their backs, so I don't think it's too unnatural. Maybe he smelled something he didn't like?
It wouldn't have been associated with anything I did. The wind was about 10 mph out of the west/northwest and the decoys and I were on the east side on the tree line and he was coming in from the northwest. Which is about 40 yards wide at that point. There was just enough underbrush to shoot round to make me question the shot. It's possible that I could have taken a risky shot but I decided not to. I'm starting to think that I might be waiting for too perfect of a shot and getting "gun shy" so-to-speak. Time will tell. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
